Out and About

You know that feeling when you’re driving down the road, scrolling aimlessly through the radio dial, when you come across a favorite song that instantly transports you to another time?
It happens to me every day.
In fact, it was just a few days ago that I was driving in my trusty Subaru down U.S. 521, enjoying the warm weather with the sunroof wide open, when I landed on one of those radio stations that play “the best music from the ‘80s, ‘90s, and today!”

Lancaster-native Don Dixon and his wife, singer-songwriter Marti Jones, will perform this weekend in Rock Hill, their first show this close to his hometown in several years.
The performance, presented by the Arts Council of York County, is 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Community Performance Center, 249 E. Main St.
“We play in Charlotte occasionally,” Dixon said Tuesday, “but this is our first time back in a while.”
He called their acoustic music “what a lot of people would call Americana these days.”

The Lancaster County Elementary Honors Choir, featuring fifth-grade students under the direction of Kathy Clark, performed Tuesday night at Bundy Auditorium at the University of South Carolina Lancaster. Here are some scenes from the performance. The entire performance will air on LearnTV at 9 a.m., noon, 3, 6 and 9 p.m. next Friday. The Middle School Honors Choir will air the same day at 10 a.m., 1, 4, 7 and 10 p.m. Look for the full LearnTV schedule in Sunday’s edition.

The S.C. American Legion and American Legion Post 31 honored several of its longtime members Monday night during a brief ceremony at the Stafford Graham building.
Between the four of them, John Carter, Dr. J.P. Horton, Lilly Kee and W.C. Wallace have a combined 270 years of continual membership.
“I know it’s quite an honor,” said Bob Scherer, first vice commander of the S.C. American Legion. “I’m only 71 years old, so they’ve all got me beat. We want South Carolina to stand up and be proud of everything you are doing.”

She flattens out the Walmart bag and folds it again and again until it’s a strip of plastic.
She cuts the strip every 2 inches, producing a pile of plastic loops, which she knots end-to-end to produce a long piece of “plarn,” or plastic yarn. Then she crochets this into a woven fabric.

Steinway artist Pamela Howland is a classically trained concert pianist, a specialist in the works of Polish composer Frederic Chopin, and a fan of the Beatles. But primarily, she communicates emotions to audiences through the language of music.
Vivacious, imaginative, sensitive and a bit unconventional, she is that rare classically trained performing artist who thrives as an entertainer. Now, Howland has created original piano arrangements of beloved Beatles tunes, transporting the Fab Four back to Chopin’s musical landscape.

I knew it was going to be a fun gala this year when the team in charge of decoration asked people to save their empty wine and spirits bottles. Some of us had an embarrassing number to hand over, but what do you expect just after Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s?
Art & Soul at the Bootleggers Ball, this year’s Lancaster County Council of the Arts (LCCA) 19th annual fundraising gala, will be held Feb. 6 at USC Lancaster’s Bradley Building.

Andrew Jackson State Park in Lancaster and Hanging Rock State Park in Heath Springs are holding special First Day Hikes events on Jan. 1 to help launch the New Year.
Visitors will learn more about the cultural and natural heritage of South Carolina, as well as get some fresh air and exercise.

What do a German, Hungarian and Brazilian have in common? If you said, “a love of music,” you’d be right, but you’d be missing the story behind the answer.
On Sunday afternoon, Nov. 15, members of the Greenville Symphony Ensemble invite you to join them as they weave a musical journey from Germany, to Brazil, to the United States, and learn some of the real-life stories behind the musical travel.